How can a gospel that is all prosperity, all victory, all sugar, speak to those who are suffering? People who hear the prosperity gospel, but experience darkness in their lives—and who doesn’t—may wonder, “What is the matter with me that God doesn’t bestow material blessings on me?”

​When the church acknowledges the suffering of Jesus, and the suffering in the world and in our own lives, the church can lift brave hope out of the ashes of human suffering.